Thursday, December 13, 2012

I seem to recall reading more than once that it didn't matter how much Republican opposition there was to Rice -- she could still win confirmation. I never understood why anyone believed that. As long as the filibuster exists, as long as holds exist, as long as the White House wants anything else -- anything -- from Republicans, in the House or the Senate, the party had the power to kill her chances, and that power was going to be used. Republicans are wounded, but they're still going to avenge themselves after Obama's reelection victory every chance they get, simply because that's what they do -- all of them, including "moderates" like Susan Collins. They haven't gone as far as they could in theory -- they do still feel they need a fig leaf for every act of obstructionism; they don't just obstruct and sa,y "We did it because we can." But the fact is, they do it because they can. They don't think government controlled by Democrats is legitimate -- any of them. Or, at least, they think their base voters don't think Democratic government is legitimate. So they do this.

And they're right about their base -- but something like still isn't enough to appease that base. I spotted this dialogue on Twitter and I don't agree with it:

thats all this bullshit was about RT @jmartpolitico Lindsey Graham just got a nice talking pt for his '14 primary

What I mean is that, for Lindsey Graham, this may have been about appeasing his right flank -- but his right flank won't be appeased. If he tries to go moderate on immigration, this won't be weighed against that -- he'll just have a damning black mark against his record, which will mark him as a "RINO," and helping to kill the Susan Rice appointment won't get him off that hook. Even if he doesn't do anything moderate between now and his next election, the base will comb through his record and find evidence of RINOism, and he will be primaried. He can wave Susan Rice's scalp all he wants and it won't help. The crazies will ask why he didn't give them even more. He won't be saved.

5 comments:

Steve, I don't question your argument, but I AM suffering from memory loss caused by sleep deprivation at the end of a long and painful semester, so: WHY will Graham be primaried? What has he done to earn the wrath of the Tea Party types that I'm not remembering at the moment?

He'll be primaried from the right, but he now has the advantage that potentially effective teabaggers have to decide whether to run for Graham's seat, the governorship (Haley's approval ratings are low), or DeMint's seat in the Senate (Haley will be appointing somebody to the Senate now until an election in 2014).

The wrong Rice decided to take her name out of the running for SoS. Condi was an inept lying sack of sh*t, and never mind not being considered for SoS, she should have been fired as National Security Advisor for gross negligence.

Well, after beating beaten twice by the Niggrah they hate the most, the Republicans wanted a pound of flesh - and we'll see how this goes over with women and people of color in the '14 and '16 elections.

The Republicans and Conservatives will NEVER get over being beaten by a black man - TWICE.

They may finally concede on the "cliff," but they're prepared to go to war over the debt ceiling.

I hope President Obama's found an end-around, because the Republicans want more than a pound of flesh, they want all of the limbs, if not the whole body.

And they don't care if the entire contries economy collapses.They'd "rather rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven."